First of all Halak made it clear thru his agent he wanted to play or be traded, he didn’t say he didn’t want to be in Montreal, he just said he wanted to play. You just keep talking out your rear end as usual from what I see of your dimwitted posts.

And I especially like how you lie about what I said to try and make me look bad. I never said soccer is only for poor people you petulant little child. You said soccer is the most popular sport and I said thats becuase it’s huge in third world countries because it’s cheap and easy for people to play. You somehow twist that into me saying “soccer is just for poor people” what an ignorant little tool you are. You attack people just because you don’t agree with their opinion, stay classy kid.

We’ve been splitting our series with the Leafs for years now, that’s nothing new. Everyone made it out like we’d go 0-6 agains the Supersquad of Truculence but no, another series split in a year where the Habs were crippled by injury.

Loads of journalists have expressed that Halak likely won’t stay in Montreal unless Price is already gone and there’s huge coin involved. Hell, Allan Walsh basically said that publicly in November and it was reported on this very site.

Oh wait, why am I wasting my time replying to a knuckle-dragger like you who thinks soccer is just for poor people?

Hamrlik wouldn’t be as difficult as you think to trade provided he gives teams he’d be willing to go to that would want him back. There are about 8 teams in the NHL who could swallow his cap hit for a year and could use some veteran defense.

“Trade Price for whatever we can get” That statement makes no sense. Since he’ll command very little salary, there’s no reason to trade Price unless there’s a truly good deal that comes along. It would also be stupid to trade Price before Halak is signed, because there are whispers that Halak has no interest in staying here anyway, and if they both leave we’re screwed.

Show me any article or press release that shows robidas or letang ahead of Dion, now your just makin claims that have zero merit, Letang wasn’t even invited to training camp! Lol, it was regehr, phaneuf, bouwmeester and green who were the defensive taxi squad, Marc staal, robidas etc… Were invited to training camp, that doesn’t mean they were ahead on the depth chart…anyways, I’d be willing to wager on Dion returning to form, the guy isn’t perfect, no player is, but your own personal hate for him is clear, and any analysis you make of him are clearly tainted, so this wont go any further, I understand a hab bias, and how much more valued you would see Dion if he was a hab, but it’s pretty redonkulous! I may not have all the “info” you have or all the time and resources you have but atleast I can look at players objectively, Anyways have a good Andrew! Til next time!

I keep reading that we’re going to escape from Hamrlik’s cap hit by moving him. Any ideas who might take him? I think he’ll be difficult, if not impossible to move.

Halak must be signed and kept. Trade Price for whatever we can get. Sign Moore. If Pleks is too expensive we may have to let him go – a sad possibility. Maybe one of the young guys can step up. AK46 is a puzzle – so much talent, so tantalizing – great speed, good shot – and he hits. But I’m just not sure. Maybe give him one more go, unless we get an offer we can’t refuse.

If O’byrne has taken up permanent residence in JM’s doghouse, then maybe we have to move him and get somebody here who’ll play. There’s no sense keeping him if he is going to be buried.

Metro is a useful player but the $1 million he will command might be better spent on younger player(s).

K, I understand what you’re trying to say, but you’re bordering on delusion now. Phaneuf does not have the tools to become twice the player Markov is. He’s nowhere near as good of a skater, he has nowhere near the hockey sense, his passing is not even close, and his defensive ability is lacking in a big way.

Go back and read the press releases from Team Canada, Phaneuf wasn’t even in the top 15 defensemen considered for the squad by December. Players like Stephane Robidas and Kris Letang were ahead of him on the depth chart, and no one is thinking those two are going to ever be top 5 in the league. The talent gap between players like Doughty and Keith, who are actually top 5 in the NHL, and Phaneuf, who you’re asserting can be is massive. As it stands right now Phaneuf would be lucky if he made the top 40-50 defensemen of last season.

Of course a sane fan of the Habs would want Markov locked up for the next 7 years at least…The thing is, fans have no idea how these talks work from player to player, you never know what players want or the teams offers. He is a bargain right now and deserves 6.5 + per. Will he sign long term at a cap hit like say Hossa did (get the big bucks first and retire with the club)? Or does he want a Vinny contract? And his contract is done next year, so I would hope something is already in the works.

But I don’t think the Habs can afford a ‘Vinny’ contract for Markov AND land a couple of top 6 F contracts as well (oh yeah, and figure out the goalie situation). Trades are going to have to be made, players will not be returning next year.

But who leaves?

If the right deal comes along, you always have to consider what that will do for your club long term, and yes, that COULD involve Markov, Price, Halak, Hamrlik, Kostitsyn(s), etc, etc. Wow are the next weeks going to be interesting to watch unfold!

I remember another bold statement mentioning how the Blackhawks would not win the Stanley Cup with the goaltending they had…your “future” and anyone else here’s predictions hold no water so, in a sense, it is a bold statement, Markov has Taken quite a while a to develop into the player he is, Phaneuf has all the tools to become twice the player markov is, thinkin so blindly otherwise like yourself, shows your personal distaste for phaneuf or any other play you dislike…Canada’s depth at every position is why phaneuf was not taken on team Canada, you can’t say he was not considered, he just got beat out by the depth, if not for Keith, I don’t think seabrook makes that team, phaneuf’s play although it did have some impact on his reason for not being selected, it more or less had to do with depth, I mean stamkos, st. Louis and Carter weren’t on that team either, that’s a testament to depth, not crappy play

Obviously, you have no clue about “The Beautiful Game”. It takes a hell of a lot of pace, strength, and mental strength to play this game, something the habs are still In search of….except for Halak. Good on you Boone for switching to football, maybe the Habs can learn a thing or two, too.

Forza ITALIA!!!!…but I’m a realist so I don’t see them doing much. Argentina, Brazil or Spain for me.

No, but Detroit hasn’t hit a homerun in the first round in some time either, even in the 1990’s. Their home runs were lucky picks like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen and Holmstrom. Even Lidstrom was a second rounder.

If you aren’t drafting top 5, hitting homeruns between 10 and 30 is easier, but not by much, than hitting them when drafting 31-90.

It said something that Team Canada brass, in the midst of hailing the “next generation” of Canadian stars, particularly on the blueline, opted not to have Phaneuf on their team, and instead went with the likes of Keith, Weber and Doughty. I doubt much will change when the short list of the D corps for Sochi 2014 is submitted.

It’s not that bold of a statement, Habhopeful. When you look at talented young guys who are already superior to Phaneuf, and players in their primes that are still way better than Phaneuf, he doesn’t have the instincts or hockey intelligence or whatever you want to call it to be top 5 in this league. Yes Markov is older than Dion, but he put up points at DOUBLE the pace Dion Phaneuf did last season, coming off a massive injury. He’s also incomparably better defensively than Phaneuf. Phaneuf is more physical, but he rarely gets off intimidating checks the last 2 seasons that don’t throw him wildly out of position. Komisarek can do that too. Against a fast skating team, players like Phaneuf get massively schooled.

He fell the wrong way when he was hit by Cooke and Grabovski caught him from behind in 08-09 with a dirty hit because he couldn’t handle the fact that we were stomping them in our last game against them that year. Neither was his fault and both could have resulted in less severe injuries, the knee problem with Grabovski never even required surgery. The tendon injury also not his fault, had he been wearing the new kevlar socks we’d have finished with 10-12 more points this season easily.

He had missed 24 games in the first four years of the lockout and returned from injury a month early to play for the Canadiens this season. That isn’t the mark of injury prone to pick up a pair of injuries over the course of a season, one of which was a freak accident and the other just one of those bad falls. Injury prone if he starts getting injured next season maybe, but using a 13-month window of a player’s career to determine his durability isn’t really accurate.

In my opinion, thats a pretty bold statement…A player like him who can dish out big hits, and any defensemen who dishes out hits like him, will more often than not put themselves out of position at one point or another…He can also put points on the board and can shoot a hard shot from the point, thats pretty much all the intangibles Scouts look for in players and also something almost all 30 GM’s in the NHL look for in Defensemen nowadays…Markov is what 31 or 32 years old? (dont have time to check sorry)5-7 years ago, would you have said Markov would have become a top 5 Defensemen in this league?…Im assuming, like most here, you also beleive that Markov is a top 5 Defensemen in the NHL, correct me if Im wrong, I think hes great but he has his faults and injury problems too…People right now, in “Heres the one I want” are excited at the possiblity of drafting Dylan McIlrath, a 6’4 200 or so Pound Defensemen who hits and fights and is only recently been progressing in terms of point Productions from the back end…That sounds a little like the Dion Phaneuf mold…

My main point is, we bitch and moan about other players and our own players and we cry about needing toughness on our team, yet most here, and i dont mean to generalize but its too difficult to single people out here, criticize other players like Downie, Richards, Ovechkin, Pronger, Phaneuf, the list is too long, all players who play on the border and sometimes past it of tough hockey, these are players our team requires because we dont have much toughness…to me, in my opinion, is shows a complete Bias towards your own feelings of a player rather than an organizational need that is required, as weve seen against the Flyers…I know alot of people here are knowledgeable when it comes to Hockey, like yourself, SF09, SD, “Toonie Cents” and so on but i also notice alot of personal bias towards certain players who this organization would love to have but for some reason most would not take on there team because there “dirty”, “unproven”, “Chokers” and so on…Chris seems to have a pretty unbiased view when it comes to players in the NHL, I like to agree with him mostly because he takes a pretty open perspective view to certain players who are hated on this website…Managing a hockey team is all about Risk & Reward, thats how GM’s work…Burke took a risk, and Kessel, a Fine 1 dimensional player that he is, was definatley not worth for what he was traded for, the risk outweighed the reward in that case…Philly traded 2 1st round draft picks, a solid prospect and then some for Chris Pronger…That is a case of the reward being better than the risk because Pronger, as much as you and most must hate him, really stabilizes a Defence corps and he is definatley a player i would welcome on our team, regardless of his dirty play and reputation, all I care about is having a winning team, and Pronger is a perfect piece of the puzzle for any team…

“I went to see a fight the other night…And A hockey game broke out!” ~Rodney Dangerfield~

Koivu wasn’t soft either but he sure was injury prone. Markov is looking to be that way too. Look at it this way. Had Byfuglien hit Markov they way he hit Pronger Markov would’ve torn two ACL’s and got a concussion.

Good assessment of Phaneuf, Andrew. But I would like to add, if I could, that he skates like a new-born moose-calf. But man he can shoot! He made some huge hits back in the WJHC in ’05(?) and Maguire had instant man-love for him.

I wouldn’t say a lot further, but you’re probably right. I know our biggest weakness right now is forward depth, but for some reason when I look at the UFA lists I keep coming back to Paul Martin. How many underrated defensemen have come out of NJ? He could be the steal of the UFA season, and likely for only 4.5-5 million a year.

Habhopeful, think of it this way. Phaneuf got 32 points in 81 games this year and he was a +1, and he’s been mildly torn down on this site. Markov got 34 points in 45 games and was a +11 (best on the Canadiens) and many people want to throw Markov out with the trash on this site.

The problem with Dion Phaneuf is that he was never as good as Pierre Maguire and many others pretended he was. He was never a top 5 defenseman in the league and he’ll never BE a top 5 defenseman in the league. It doesn’t mean he’s not good. But he’s not a great passer, he’s not good in his own end and he’s not good in transition.

Montreal was so thouroughly dominated in the last series with Philly only playing at 3/4 effort compared to how they played vs Chicago. The problem was absolutely no offense or offensive zone pressure. Markov would have not been able to change that. He could have helped the PP, but the way Philly were boxing out the slot and getting into shooting lanes, I doubt he could have done much. Even if he helped them score a few more goals, it would have been way short. I really doubt they win even one more game if he was playing. One player cannot overcome the difference in depth and physical talent that Philly possessed. They didn’t even need a goaltender or more than 4 defenseman to take Montreal out to the woodshed.